BioCRACK pilot plant – Integrating a biorefining technology within conventional infrastructures
Name
|
BioCRACK Pilot Plant
|
Company
|
|
Location
|
Schwechat (Austria)
|
Category
|
Pilot plant (integrated in the OMV refinery)
|
Status
|
Dismantled by the end of 2015
|
Platforms
|
Vacuum gas oil, pyrolysis oil and electricity & heat
|
Feedstock
|
Wood chips (soft and hard wood), forestry residues, straw and other
agricultural residues
|
Products
|
Renewable gasoline &
diesel, biochar and pyrolysis oil
|
Start-up
|
2012
|
Processing capacity
|
400,000 tons/y of
biomass
|
Figure
1. BioCRACK pilot plant (extracted from Reference 2)
In
the transition towards the biobased economy, the integration of biorefining
processes within conventional infrastructures can be a key factor to speed up
the development of certain novel technologies. This post brings an example
coming from the thermochemical platform. Such platform include processes with
strong potential to be integrated in the existing facilities of sectors such as
conventional refining or pulp and paper.
THE
PROJECT
BDI
and OMV were jointly involved in the BioCRACK pilot plant project from 2009 to
2015 with support from the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Environmental
Technology and the Austrian Climate & Energy Fund - “New Energies 2020”. The
main objective was to develop a technically simple, cost-effective and small-scale
process based on the liquid phase pyrolysis technology.
The
basic research on the technology started in 2007 and the first test trials were
performed during 2008 and 2009. The engineering, construction and start-up of
the pilot plant were carried out from 2010 to 2012 and tests were run 24h/5d within
the next two years. The dimensions of the module of 60 tons built in the OMV
refinery were 7.5 m x 7 m x 21.5 m (height) and it had 2,000 m of pipes. The
cost of the project came to EUR 7 million. The results obtained under the
various operation conditions showed that the up-scaling from a semi batch
lab-scale reactor to a pilot plant was successful.
THE
PROCESS
The
BioCRACK pilot plant used the liquid phase pyrolysis (liquefaction of solid
biomass) process whereby the biomass (100 kg/h) is heated with fossil vacuum
gas oil (1,000 kg/h) from the oil refinery to over 400 °C. The biomass consisted
largely of wood and straw. The process generated the following intermediate products:
pyrolysis gas, pyrolysis oil, biochar, BioCRACK gasoil and kerosene, BioCRACK
naphtha and vacuum gas oil.
Figure
2. Integration of the BioCRACK pilot plant in the refinery (extracted from Reference
2)
The
BioCRACK pilot plant was directly linked to other units in the refinery. The
pyrolysis gas and the biochar were used to provide part of the process heat.
The vacuum gas oil was put into the fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) process
to produce renewable gasoline, low HC gas and a heavy fraction. The BioCRACK
gasoil, kerosene and naphtha were used in the hydrogenation to produce
renewable gasoline and diesel. As the
bioCRACK process uses beside biomass also vacuum gas oil from the oil refinery,
fossil and biogenic carbon is mixed in intermediates, co-products and final
products.
_________________________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES
1 www.bdi-bioenergy.com (accessed on 14th
May 2016).
2 E.
Ahn: “The bioCRACK Process – a refinery
integrated biomass-to-liquid concept to produce diesel from biogenic feedstock”
(Presentation). BDI - BioEnergy International AG. April 2016.
3 IEA Bioenergy Task 42 Biorefining. Factsheets
Biorefineries. 3-platform (vacuum gas oil, pyrolysis oil, electricity&heat)
biorefinery using wood for renewable gasoline&diesel, biochar and pyrolysis
oil.
